Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson (b. 1976) finds beauty in the banality of rituals. Raised by an actress and a playwright but trained as a painter, he combines an intuitive sense of performance with an impulse toward stillness.

Amsterdam-based Marjolijn de Wit’s (b. 1979, The Netherlands) ceramic photographic collages, installations, and paintings explore ideas of future archeology, the interpretation of history, and our relationship with nature and the built environment.

Ricardo Gonzalez (b. 1980, Mexico City) utilizes a limited palette, simplified mark-making, and a sense of humor to explore the language of expressionistic painting and drawing.

The suggestion of human features in this painting—an eye here, a limb there—reminds us of expressionist painters like Willem de Kooning. Throughout history, artists have obsessively attempted to reimagine the human form, as methods of "lifelike rendering" were broken down and reimagined. In his paintings like this one, Ricardo carries on this tradition in his particular frenzied and graphic style.

This piece embodies the dichotomy in all of Ricardo Gonzalez's work: both humor and nihilism. It's not clear whether the larger-than-life figures are laughing at you or with you—but then again, they look like rough figments of your imagination, so how menacing can they really be?